A flock of ravens nearly darkened the eastern twilight sky, their wingbeats thumping through my chest as a horse whirled along a round corral.
An omen? I thought, never noticing so many in the same place and time…certainly not here.
Whiskey objected to the loop of rope around his hocks and double-barrel fired his hind feet in protest. The last day of summer emblazoned the sky with the most spectacular post-rain sunset that evolved with each passing moment into vivid violet and electric pink clouds framing the sun and its white spotlight beams reaching for the heavens.
And that sky was last most most beautiful thing to behold before I made a rash decision and quickly found myself in the middle of the wreck of a galloping horse and a lariat wrapping tighter around my torso, twisting around my legs like a serpent. Realizing my trouble, I began making decisions so quickly that I didn't have to think about it and found words to announce, "This is bad."
"Suzanne!" squealed one of two bystanders.
"This is not good!" I said bending and yielding to the maze of tightening coils rasping across my coat, dangerously squeezing my waist. That is going to burn if this gets worse, I thought while urgently seeking release from the horse's panicked retreat around the pen. Visions of being dragged, explaining what happened from a hospital bed, and worse clouded my mind, until Death's mysterious silhouette stepped in to take me to that dramatic sunset—yet I only relinquished the part of me that succumbed to my mistake.
With no time to fear, I spun across the silty footing and slipping rope, and found the path to slow Whiskey's spiraling deathtrap, while staying upright and relatively balanced. And as the dizzying frenzy died down, I was guided through lightness and releasing ropes fully aware that there would be no hospital or funeral...not even a bruise. Without troubling the horse more than he was already troubled, I finally stepped out of the binding rope and found myself safe enough to ask Whiskey to move out again, this time adjusting what I was doing to support him better. We continued working with renewed attention toward a unified goal, while the sun slipped below the horizon for an equally reflective night.
Now that enough time has passed, the muscles in my back feel like granite, but I'm breathing and my heart is beating…and I feel so blessed for all of the messengers and universal lessons that have manifested before this fall, as well as the renewed opportunities to stay present and eternally grateful.
